Your guide to new films in cinemas across Australia this week, 2 to 8 December 2024.
For the monthly guide to new film releases, head to our guide for new films in December.
New movies
5 December
André Rieu’s 2024 Christmas Concert: Gold & Silver
Celebrate the holiday season with The King of Walz, André Rieu, his Johann Strauss Orchestra, and with special guest artists, including the talented Emma Kok.
Director: André Rieu, Michel Fizzano
Cast: André Rieu
Classification: E
Country: Netherlands
Runtime: 180 mins
Ghost Cat Anzu (sub and dub)
Precocious tween Karin finds herself abandoned by her father in rural Japan. Living in a temple with her grandfather, she meets Anzu, a giant ‘ghost cat’ and the notorious layabout tasked with looking after her.
Distrustful of her new guardian, Karin sabotages Anzu’s odd jobs for the townsfolk and befriends the eccentric local forest spirits. In an effort to win Karin over, Anzu accidentally makes a deal with the devil, and all hell breaks loose.
Watch our review of Ghost Cat Anzu on TikTok.
Director: Yôko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita
Cast: Asami Seto, Yumi Hara
Classification: MA
Country: Japan
Runtime: 132m
Girl From The North Country
A musical reimagining 20 legendary songs of Bob Dylan, written and directed by celebrated playwright Conor McPherson and featuring Tony Award-winning orchestrations by Simon Hale.
Director: Conor McPherson
Cast:
Classification: M
Country: UK
Runtime: 145m
My Favourite Cake
Since her husband’s death and daughter’s departure for Europe, Mahin lives alone in Tehran. One day, an afternoon tea with friends leads her to break her solitary routine and revitalise her love life.
Director: Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam Moghaddam
Cast: Lili Farhadpour, Esmaeel Mehrabi
Classification: CTC
Country: France, Germany, Iran, Sweden
Runtime: 97m
Out of Season
It’s winter. Approaching his 50th birthday, successful screen actor Mathieu is facing a crisis of confidence; just weeks out from his stage debut, he has fled rehearsals to check into a spa on the Brittany coast, leaving both the play’s perplexed director and his wife back home in Paris.
Director: Stéphane Brizé
Cast: Guillaume Canet, Alba Rohrwacher
Classification: M
Country: France
Runtime: 116m
Piece by Piece
The story of musician Pharrell Williams is told with animated Lego in this autobiography from the Oscar-winning director of 20 Feet From Stardom.
Director: Morgan Neville
Cast: Pharrell Williams
Classification: CTC
Country: USA
Runtime: 94m
Rumours
Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander lead this political comedy nominated for the Palme d’Or. En route to the annual G7 summit, the seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest liberal democracies get lost in the woods and face increasing peril while attempting to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis.
Director: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, Charles Dance
Classification: CTC
Country: Canada, Germany, USA
Runtime: 104m
Solo Leveling: ReAwakening
This cinema release based on the hit web novel-turned-anime features a catch-up recap of the first season coupled with an exclusive sneak peek of the first two episodes of the second season.
Over a decade after ‘gates’ connecting worlds appeared, awakening ‘hunters’ with superpowers, weakest hunter Sung Jinwoo encounters a double dungeon and accepts a mysterious quest, becoming the only one able to level up, changing his fate
Director: Shunsuke Nakashige
Cast: Taito Ban, Genta Nakamura
Classification: MA
Country: Japan, South Korea
Runtime: 116m
The Dead Don’t Hurt
Viggo Mortensen’s second outing as a writer and director is a Western tale starring Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) and Mortensen as an immigrant couple trying to make their way in 1860s California. Co-starring Danny Huston, Garret Dillahunt and Solly McLeod, the film premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
Director: Viggo Mortensen
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Vicky Krieps, Garret Dillahunt
Classification: CTC
Country: Canada, Denmark, Mexico
Runtime: 130m
Werewolves
Two scientists try to stop a mutation that turns people into werewolves after being touched by a super-moon the year before.
Director: Steven C. Miller
Cast: Frank Grillo, Lou Diamond Phillips, Ilfenesh Hadera
Classification: MA
Country: USA
Runtime: 94m
6 December
Laufey’s A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl
The prodigious Grammy-winning singer Laufey performs at the iconic Hollywood Bowl, accompanied by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
Director: Sam Wrench
Cast: Laufey
Classification: M
Country: USA
Runtime: 98m
7 December
MetOpera: La Rondine
Puccini’s bittersweet love story makes a rare Met appearance, with soprano Angel Blue starring as the sophisticated French courtesan Magda, opposite tenor Jonathan Tetelman in his company debut as Ruggero, an idealistic young man who offers her an alternative to her life of excess.
Director: Maestro Speranza Scappucci
Cast: Emily Pogorelc, Bekhzod Davronov
Classification: CTC
Country: USA
Runtime: 170m
The Australian Ballet: The Nutcracker
Tchaikovsky’s last ballet score, with its famous motifs and melodies, draws us into the story of Clara, a young ballet student celebrating with her family on Christmas Eve. When the clock strikes twelve, we enter the dream realm, where Clara’s Nutcracker doll comes to life, taking her on a thrilling adventure where she encounters the Rat King before being whisked away to the Land of Sweets and into the arms of her Nutcracker Prince.
Veteran designer John F Macfarlane exquisitely evokes the world of this picture-perfect ballet: whirling snowflakes, crackling fires, band-box soldiers, a Christmas tree that grows until it brushes the ceiling and a Sugar Plum Fairy in luscious candy-floss pink.
Director: Sir Peter Wright
Cast:
Classification: CTC
Recently released
28 November
Green Border
The stories of a Syrian refugee family, an English teacher from Afghanistan, and a border guard intertwine in this humanitarian drama from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Agnieszka Holland (In Darkness). In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so called ‘green border’ between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to reach the European Union are trapped in a geopolitical crisis cynically engineered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. In an attempt to provoke Europe, refugees are lured to the border by propaganda promising easy passage to the EU. Pawns in this hidden war, the lives of Julia, a newly minted activist who has given up her comfortable life, Jan, a young border guard, and a Syrian family intertwine.
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Cast: Jalal Altawil, Maja Ostaszewska
Classification: CTC
Country: Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Poland
Runtime: 152m
Heretic
Two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed, becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse.
Director: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Cast: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East
Classification: CTC
Country: USA
Runtime: 111m
Your Monster
After her life falls apart, soft-spoken actress Laura Franco finds her voice again when she meets a terrifying, yet weirdly charming Monster living in her closet in this rom-com horror.
Director: Caroline Lindy
Cast: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Meghan Fahy
Classification: CTC
Country: USA
Runtime: 98m
Moana 2
Sequel to the 2016 Disney animated adventure hit. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure.
Director: Dave Derrick Jr.
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Alan Tudyk, Auli’i Cravalho
Classification: CTC
Country: USA
Runtime: 100m
Sharko
Widely regarded as one of the greatest Rugby League players ever, kiwi hard-man Mark Graham was feared off and, on the field, though little knew the real man or the destruction behind his success. Sharko portrays an intimate look at the life of a father, a son and the cost of greatness.
Director: Luke Graham
Cast: Matthew Swift, Luke Graham
Classification: CTC
Country: Australia
Runtime: 83m
29 November
Queens of Concrete
Big dreams wrestle bitter truths as three Australian teenage girls pursue Olympic history. Shot over seven years, this coming-of-age documentary chronicles the journey from childhood to adulthood and the moments that define us.
Director: Eliza Cox
Cast: Hayley Wilson, Ava Godfrey, Charlotte Heath
Classification: M
Country: Australia
Runtime: 87m
